Zoo – Drop It Like It’s Hot

By: Patience Kapfer

We didn’t think “Zoo” could get any more intense after last week’s episode, but boy were we sure wrong! Jumping right into this week’s episode, there has been the first ever hybrid attack on what was thought to be a safe area-the east coast. Not only was there an attack, but now the large scary bird hybrids are flying after the plane that has Jackson (James Wolk) and crew on board and trying to knock it out of the air. While the group is flying in fear, Mitch (Billy Burke) is in New York City with Logan (Josh Salatin) and Jamie (Kristen Connolly) after she admitted to the murder of Leanne Ducovny (Sophina Brown).

The bird hybrids are chasing Jackson’s group because they devised a plan to recharge the drone with the beacon and lead them away from New York and instead to a volcano. The plan is to drop the beacon using the drone into the volcano where the hybrids will chase after it and lead to their looming demise. Back up just a few moments and as the hybrids continue to smash their way into the plane they cause a brief power failure that allows Mansdale (Jason Cermak) to escape his prison cell. Of course, his main goal is to get to the weapons, but that plan is quickly thwarted as Jackson’s group is rushing into that section of the plane. Quickly he darts inside what he assumes to be a safe hiding spot-the back seat of Jamie’s Mustang. To his dismay, and utter terror, the group realizes they need something to make sure the beacon doesn’t just fall from the plane, but it drops straight into the volcano. What better to weigh down a beacon than an entire car?

At the exact time we see Jackson and his group send the Mustang into the fiery abyss of the volcano, we see Jamie tell Mitch that she needs Mansdale as he has information that is imperative to exonerating Jamie. Mitch calls to tell the group that they need to bring Mansdale to New York only to have them realize that somehow Mansdale escaped and they have no idea where he is…until Abe (Nonso Anozie) reviews the security footage that is.

Mitch doesn’t seem to want to let go of the grudge he holds against Logan for his time spent with Jamie while Mitch was in the stasis tank and you could cut the tension with a knife. The tension is made worse by Logan’s insistence that Jamie is guilty since she confessed at the crime scene, but Mitch is convinced she is innocent and believes that Logan should be more concerned with proving her innocent than assuming she’s guilty.

Unfortunately, even after Dariela (Alyssa Diaz) hired bounty hunters to capture Clementine (Gracie Dzienny) and give her to Leanne, Isaac still isn’t safe and is still in Reiden’s custody. Jackson agrees with Abe that he will help them to get Isaac back safely and it will be a primary goal of their mission now that the beacon has been tossed into the volcano. While Abe and Jackson share a tender moment about Abe’s son, Jackson also admits to them that Abigail (Athena Karkanis) is his sister. Before they can go on their rescue mission, the group goes on a mission back to Mexico to find Abigail so no one else will die due to her convoluted plan to have the hybrids destroy the world. On their way to find Abigail, luckily Dariela finally regains her heart and calls the bounty hunters to tell them that they don’t want Reiden to have Clem after all as they just can’t trade one man’s child for their own. But we know it’s never that simple and the bounty hunters refuse to give Clem back and plan to find out what makes this girl so special that Reiden would want her so badly. Once the bounty hunters threaten Clem with torture she hastily admits that she’s pregnant, which doesn’t seem like the smartest idea considering these are bounty hunters. No sooner has she opened her mouth does the female bounty hunter tell her comrade to “call the gentlemen.” But who are the gentlemen and what do they want with Clementine?

Luckily for Mitch he has no idea that his daughter has been taken or that she is even pregnant, as he is finally allowed to see Jamie. Once he informs her that Mansdale definitely will not be joining them she appoints Mitch as her co-legal council since she will be self representing. Jamie tells Mitch that Mansdale had documents that could help Jamie, but since he’s dead they will need to get the files from Reiden as evidence instead. In order to help Jamie, Mitch and Logan need to unencrypt a document, but it will only work on Leanne’s tablet which needs her fingerprint. Mitch suggests they just go to the morgue to use her fingerprint to unlock the tablet. They manage to open the files, but even on the tablet they are still encrypted. That’s when they notice one of Leanne’s eyes (well, contacts) light up, so Logan removes the contact and places it in his eye and is thus able to unencrypt the files. These files say nothing about Jamie, but they do make note of Reiden stock and some new drug-Nelvatox-B. Once they have this information Jamie tells Mitch and Logan that she didn’t actually kill Leanne, she just needed to get to the file and by confessing it enabled her to have Mitch and Logan access it.

In Mexico, Abe, Dariela and Jackson go hunting for Abigail. Much to their surprise they find Tessa (Hilary Jardine) instead. She tells them that the villagers say there is a witch who keeps the hybrids away and so obviously the next logical course of action is to go on a mission to find this witch. On their way to find the witch, Tessa explains to Jackson why she feels so strongly about Robert Oz and the sterilization. All Tessa ever wanted as a child was to be a mother and have lots and lots of children, causing her now to hold pretty intense resentment toward Jackson and his father. More surprising; however, we learn that when Jackson was nineteen years old he had a wife and son that died when a truck lost control and hit a gas pump as he was inside a gas station. Understandably this story comes as a surprise to not just the audience, but Tessa as well, and potentially bridges some of that gap between them.

Once they arrive at the witch’s house, Tessa and Jackson notice that there is no ash from the volcano in the air anywhere near the house, and that she has Abigail’s symbol on her door. The woman asks if Jackson is “Mr. Duncan” to which he tells her that he is. She takes him to someone named “Abendegos” (Breanna Watkins) who – SURPRISE – isn’t a person at all, but instead is some type of talking hybrid that also knows Jackson’s name. Jackson decides they have to take this new hybrid with them so in an effort to distract Abendegoes, Jackson throws his lion clicker at him and manages to grab its chain.

While Jackson and Tessa are out, Abe and Dariela receive a video call from Reiden and Isaac telling them that Reiden plans to return all of the children the following week (but come on, will they really?). The couple asks how they are treating Isaac and he tells them that he is allowed to play outside and he is given candy for breakfast-something about candy for breakfast seems a little fishy. The couple then decides to go through Clem’s belongings and find vitamins that imply she might be pregnant. By testing a blood sample, Abe is able to tell that Clem is in fact pregnant and they determine that Reiden was using them just to get Clementine, therefore leading to even more marital tensions between Abe and Dariela.

This episode concludes in a number of intriguing ways. Back in Hudson New York, a wounded Abigail gets out of a taxi that she stole, after killing the driver. She trudges through the forest griping her bullet wound and looks like she might not make it. While in Mexico, Jackson and Tessa try to make their escape, but the witch and her goons descend upon them with guns. All of a sudden, Jackson summons lions with his mind (since his device was destroyed by Abendegoes) to protect them. In a remarkable parallel, Abigail also summons a group of razorbacks to drag her off into the forest. Back on the plane Abe tells Dariela that the baby shares some of the same DNA with the hybrids and therefore is the solution to the sterility problem. Clementine is seen obtaining a seemingly innocent ultrasound, until we see the group of creepy onlookers. The episode ends with one of the men, presumably the “gentlemen” saying “the bidding will begin at 85 million dollars.”